1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an ink jet printer and, more particularly, to a driving system for carrying out maintenance work for a print head included in an ink jet printer.
2. Description of Related Art
Some known ink jet printers having a print head are provided with a cap for capping the print head to prevent the faulty ink particle jetting operation of the print head due to the clogging of the nozzles of the print head with dried ink and to maintain the print head in an operational condition. Some of those known ink jet printers are provided with a purging device to prevent the faulty ink particle jetting operation of the print head due to the generation of bubbles in the ink contained in the print head or the adhesion of ink particles to the outlet openings of the nozzles and to restore a satisfactory ink particle jetting condition. The purging device creates a negative pressure through a cap by a suction pump to purge the nozzles of the print head of ink.
In such a known ink jet printer, the cap is operated to cap the print head by a special driving source for driving the cap for movement toward the print head or by a line feed motor for feeding a recording medium.
The cost of the ink jet printer increases when the ink jet printer is also provided with the special driving source for the maintenance of the print head. When the line feed motor is used also for moving the cap, the cap is moved to cap the print head after the print head has been moved to and stopped at a capping position opposite the cap because it is difficult to synchronize the capping action of the cap with the movement of a carriage carrying the print head. Therefore, it takes time to cap the print head with the cap. A color ink jet printer requires more time for the maintenance operation because the color ink jet printer has four print heads and capping and uncapping operations must be carried out every time one of the four print heads is moved to carry out a purge operation for each of the four print heads.